Reel for strip material



Dec. 27, 1966 J, w. O'BRIEN REEL FOR STRIP MATERIAL Filed Feb. 25, 1965 N v y E E M m E v H M Q W D.

i w W W United States Patent 3,294,338 REEL FOR STRIP MATERIAL Jeremiah Wagner OBrien, Pittsburgh, Pa, assignor to United Engineering and Foundry (Jompany, Pittsburgh,

Pin, a corporation of Pennsylvania Filed Feb. 23, 1965, Ser. No. 434,185 Claims priority, application Great Britain, Mar. 31, 1964,

13,262/ 64 7 Claims. (Cl. 24278.1)

The present invention relates to a reel, for example, as employed in connection with the manufacture of metallic strip and, more particularly, is addressed to a collapsible type reel used in connection with a rolling mill to either payoff or windup strip-like material.

Either because of the desire to windup or unwind strip in coil form having varying inside diameters or because of wear of parts, it is frequently necessary to remove the reel head or mandrel from its supporting stand in order to replace it with another reel head. Presently, such an operation involves a considerable amount of time, effort and expense, since in the present designs of reels of the type under discussion, it is necessary to remove the supporting bearings along with the gear that is keyed to the arbor of the reel. This, of course, requires a disassembling of the entire drive provided for the reel, in addition to removing the bolts that secure the bearings to the reel stand. Moreover, the user of the reel, in addition to needing a spare reel must also have spare bearings and gears or suffers a protracted delay in removing the bearings and gears from the first reel 50 that they can be mounted on the replacement reel.

The present invention is addressed to a strip reel which is so constructed and arranged with respect to its supporting stand that it can be quickly removed and replaced without necessitating the removal of any bearings and gears, and wherein a second reel assembly, as does the first, consists simply of an arbor that can be quickly inserted into the bearings and gear that are retained in the reel supporting stand.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a reel which is quickly removable and replaceable from the stand and wherein sutficient positive support is provided in a manner that all clearances between the arbor and the means that support the arbor, relative to which the arbor is adapted to be axially moved to effect its replacement, are positively taken up.

A still further object of the present invention is to provide a strip reel, including means for tightly securing the reel arbor to a permanently positioned sleeve carried by the reel stand in a manner to provide an overhanging portion upon which strip-like material is wound and means for quickly freeing the .arbor from this sleeve when it is desired to remove the arbor from the stand.

These and other features of the invention will be better appreciated when the following description of one embodiment of the invention is considered in light of the accompanying drawing in which:

FIGURE 1 is a plan view, partly in section, of a tension reel incorporating the features of the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is a sectional view taken on lines IIII of FIGURE 1, and

FIGURE 3 is a separate elevational view of the collet shown in FIGURE 1.

With reference to FIGURE 1 there is provided an expandable mandrel 9 which may follow the designs of several well-known types of mandrels and may either have three, or more, radially displaceable segments. The reel is rotatably supported by a rigid stand 10 which serves both as the support for the reel and as the drive casing for the gearing which provides the rotatable power for Patented Dec. 27, 1966 the reel. As shown, the stand 10 is made up of a hollow frame having a substantial opening between spaced-apart vertical walls 11 and 12. Within this opening, there is received identical motor pinions 13 and 14 which are connected to shafts 15 and 16 which, in turn, are connected to motor shafts 17 and 18 by couplings 19 and 21, the motors not being shown. The motor pinions 13 and 14 are arranged in diametrical opposite meshing relationship with a gear 22 which by means of a key, not shown, is rigidly connected to an elongated cylindrical sleeve 23.

With reference again to the mandrel 9, it will be noted in FIGURE 1 that the portion of the reel in the vicinity of the stand 10, which will be referred to as an arbor 24, is provided with a portion 25 having a relatively large taper at the mandrel end and at its drive side it is provided with a second tapered portion 26 conciderably narrower in comparison with the tapered portion 25. Between the two tapered portions 25 and 26 of the arbor 24, the arbor takes a true cylindrical shape, in which portion there is provided a key Way into which is received a key 27, a portion of the key being received in a key way not shown formed in the sleeve 23, thereby connecting the sleeve and arbor rigidly together so that these elements will rotate in unison, as will the sleeve with the gear 22.

As FIGURE 1 shows, the tapered portion 25 of the arbor 24 cooperates with a complementary tapered portion 26 formed at the front of the sleeve 23 and by the contact of these two portions an appreciable degree of the weight and load of the mandrel 9 is sustained. Turning now to the tapered portion 26 of the arbor 24, it will be noted that it engage-s the tapered interior of a slotted collet 31, the collet being received in an enlarged recess 32 formed in the sleeve 23. The adjacent and contacting surfaces of the outer periphery of the collet 31 and the sleeve 23 are cylindrical and the recess 32 is such that a clearance is provided between the end of the ring 23 next adjacent to the vertical surface of the sleeve 23 in the vicinity where the tapered portion 26 extends away from the cylindrical portion of the arbor 24.

Received within the recess 32 is a disk-type spring 33 which engages the vertical surface of a ring 34 carried by the sleeve 23 on the one end and the collet 31 at its other end. This spring urges the collet 31 up on the tapered portion 26 of the arbor thereby taking up all clearances that might otherwise exist between the tapered portion 26 and the internal tapered surface of the collet 31 and by reason of the inherent expandable feature of the collet all clearance between the outer surface of the collet and sleeve 23 will also be taken up. Thus it will be seen that the spring 33 and collet 31 affords the advantage of the tapered portion 25 at the front of the arbor 24 being assured of always being in positive contact with the tapered portion 28 of the sleeve 23 and that a similar relationship is maintained between the tapered portion 26 and the collet 31. While the employment of a collet has certain advantages, it will be appreciated that several other fillet members can be employed, such as a two-pieced ring having tapering surfaces that move relative to complementary tapered surfaces of the arbor and sleeve.

As FIGURE 1 shows, the sleeve 2-3 is rotatably carried in the stand 10 by bearings 35 and 36 which are rotatably carried in the vertical walls 1 1 and 12 of the stand 10. Because of this construction, on the rotation of the motor pinions 13 and 14, the gear 22 will cause rotation of the sleeve 23 within the bearings 35 and 36 and in view of the positive connection between the sleeve 23 and the arbor 24 the mandrel 9 will be rotated.

Attention is now directed again to the mandrel 9 where there is provided at the drive side thereof a cylindrical projection in the form of a ring 37 which slides over the outer periphery of the mandrel. The ring 37 is provided at its drive side with a recess 38 which allows it to pass over and engage the vertical surface of a collar 39 formed on the mandrel 9 as an integral part thereof. Equally spaced around the periphery of the ring 37 are five pivotally secured eye bolts 41. The sleeve 23 in the same vicinity is provided with an enlarged projection in the form of a collar 42 in which there are provided equidistant slots 43 or a width sufiicient, as FIG- URE 2 shows, to receive the shaft portion of the eye bolts 41. As shown in FIGURE 1, at the ends of the eye bolts there are provided nuts 44 so that when the eye bolts are placed into the slots 43 and the nuts 44 tightened, the ring 37 will force the mandrel 9 in a direction toward the stand 10 until the tapered portion 25 of the arbor 24 is completely within the tapered portion 28 of the sleeve 23. At the drive side of the collar 39 there is provided a small diameter collar 45 which will prevent any further axial movement of the arbor 24 into the sleeve 23.

It might be mentioned at this point that the slope of the tapered portions 25 and 26 of the arbor 24 according to usual practice will be about thereby leaving little tendency of the reel to move of its own accord relative to the sleeve 23.

When it is desired to remove the mandrel 9 from the sleeve 23, either hydraulic pressure can be admitted into slots formed in the sleeve 23 in the vicinity of the tapered portion 25 to free the arbor 24' from the sleeve 23 or a second bolt could be provided on the eye bolts 41 on the opposite side of the collar 42 so that by loosening the nuts 44 and rotating the second bolts in a direction of the ring 37, the ring and the mandrel 9 will be forced away from the stand 10. In this construction the ring 37 would be securely fastened to the mandrel 9.

FIGURE 1 also shows the collapsing and expanding mechanism for the mandrel 9, which according to wellknown practice consists of a piston cylinder assembly 46 which is mounted at the end of the arbor 24, the piston rod 47 of which is connected to an actuating rod 48 that passes through openings formed in the arbor and mandrel and is connected to the wedges or links of the mandrel that bring about the expanding and collapsing of its segments.

As indicated earlier, while a tension reel has been illustrated, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the present invention is just as useful in a payofi reel and also has immediate application in connection with reels used in hot coilers for coiling hot strips.

In accordance with the provisions of the patent statutes, I have explained the principle and operation of my invention and have illustrated and described what I consider to represent the best embodiment thereof. However, I desire to have it understood that within the scope of theappended claims, the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically illustrated and described.

I claim:

1. A reel for coiling and uncoiling strip-like material, including a rotatable mandrel,

a first portion of said mandrel adapted to support a coil of strip,

a second portion of said mandrel having two spacedapart tapered surfaces, one tapered surface being located at the end of the mandrel furthest away from said first portion,

a rotatable sleeve for receiving said second portion of the mandrel and having an internal tapered portion complementary to and engageable with one of the tapered portions formed on the mandrel, said sleeve having a recess at its one end for receiving a clearance takeup member,

5 said member having an internal tapered portion complementary to and engageable with the tapered portion formed at the end of the mandrel,

a yieldable means for urging the member forcibly into contact with the tapered portion formed at the one of the mandrel to eliminate any clearance therebebetween,

means for drivingly connecting said mandrel to said sleeve,

a driving means for driving the sleeve and, hence, the

mandrel, and

means for urging the cooperating tapered portions of the mandrel and sleeve into forcible contact with each other,

said last means being quickly disconnectable, thereby to permit the mandrel to be moved axially of said sleeve for removal and replacement of the mandrel relative to said sleeve.

2. In a reel according to claim 1, wherein said sleeve has at its end adjacent to the first portion of the mandrel a projection,

a projection on the first portion of the mandrel,

said means for urging the cooperating tapered portions of the mandrel and sleeve into contact with each other comprising detachable members connecting together the projections of the sleeve and first portion of the mandrel,

and for urging the projection of the first mandrel portion in a direction to force the cooperating tapered portions of the mandrel and sleeve into forcible contact with each other.

3. In a reel according to claim 1, wherein said clearance takeup member is an annular collet.

4. vIn a reel according to claim 1, wherein the driving means includes a gear secured to said sleeve.

5. In a reel according to claim 1, wherein said mandrel and sleeve are so constructed that the mandrel during operation of the reel is tightly secured to said sleeve and during the removal and replacement thereof is movable axially relative to said sleeve,

said sleeve being rotatably supported at its opposite ends by bearings which are carried by a frame.

6. In a reel according to claim 1, wherein said sleeve has a recess for receiving said clearance take-up member, the relative dimension of said recess and member being such that said member does not contact said sleeve at its inner side.

7. In a reel according to claim 1, wherein said reel is an expansible reel and wherein said means for expanding the reel is carried by the mandrel at its end furthest away from the first portion thereof, the construction of the mandrel and sleeve being such that said expanding means passes through the sleeve when the mandrel is removed.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 4/ 1953 Littell et a1. 24278.l 5/ 1960 Tracy 242-78.l

FRANK I. COHEN, Primary Examiner,

N. L. MINTZ, Assistant Examiner,

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No Q 3 294 ,338 December 27 1966 Jeremiah Wagner O'Brien r appears in he above numbered pat- It is hereby certified that erro Letters Patent should read as ent requiring correction and that the said corrected below.

Column 4, line 9, after "one" insert end Signed and sealed this 26th day of September 1967.

(SEAL) Attest:

ERNEST W. SWIDER Attesting Officer EDWARD J- BRENNER Commissioner of Patents 

1. A REEL FOR COILING AND UNCOILING STRIP-LIKE MATERIAL, INCLUDING A ROTATABLE MANDREL, A FIRST PORTION OF SAID MANDREL ADAPTED TO SUPPORT A COIL OF STRIP, A SECOND PORTION OF SAID MANDREL HAVING TWO SPACEDAPART TAPERED SURFACES, ONE TAPERED SURFACE BEING LOCATED AT THE END OF THE MANDREL FURTHEST AWAY FROM SAID FIRST PORTION, A ROTATABLE SLEEVE FOR RECEIVING SAID SECOND PORTION OF THE MANDREL AND HAVING AN INTERNAL TAPERED PORTION COMPLEMENTARY TO AND ENGAGEABLE WITH ONE OF THE TAPERED PORTIONS FORMED ON THE MANDREL, SAID SLEEVE HAVING A RECESS AT ITS ONE END FOR RECEIVING A CLEARANCE TAKEUP MEMBER, SAID MEMBER HAVING IN INTERNAL TAPERED PORTION COMPLEMENTARY TO AND ENGAGEABLE WITH THE TAPERED PORTION FORMED AT THE END OF THE MANDREL, A YIELDABLE MEANS FOR URGING THE MEMBER FORCIBLY INTO CONTACT WITH THE TAPERED PORTION FORMED AT THE ONE OF THE MANDREL TO ELIMINATE ANY CLEARANCE THEREBEBETWEEN, MEANS FOR DRIVINGLY CONNECTING SAID MANDREL TO SAID SLEEVE, 